The image above is from Sarah Ross. *The title refers to our #SuperDogForRefugees, who you can see at the refugee rights rally in Perth here.
You can listen to this episode on MediaFire here (39MB).
With “snap protests” called all around Australia to take a stand against the Rudd Labor government’s disgraceful new policies towards people coming to Australia by boat, we thought we’d do a “snap podcast” for the same reason. We discuss these new policies, which mean people coming to Australia by boat have no chance of being settled in Australia, and the way in which Rudd has spoken out against this kind of crap in the past. We critique these new policies with the help of a great article by lawyer Julian Burnside and The Human Rights Law Centre. Now asylum seekers arriving in Australia by boat who are found to be “genuine refugees” will be settled in Papua New Guinea. While Rudd tries to paint Papua New Guinea as some kind of paradise, The Guardian and even the Australian government themselves say otherwise. We also discuss the importance of striving to change Australian attitudes on asylum seekers and for true globalisation – the free movement of people around the world. While Rudd’s policies are horrible, it has been great to see protests against this all around Australia, including in Sydney, Melbourne, Townsville and Perth. We bring you some of the speeches from the Perth protest, including Sam Wainwright from the Socialist Alliance (you can see a video of his speech here), Jess McLeod – President of the Curtin University student guild and Victoria Martin-Iverson from the Refugee Rights Action Network. You can see all of our photos from this rally here.
We also have a return of the segment ‘What you HAVEN’T learnt from the media this week’, discussing the media blackout on the Bradley Manning trial and him being accused of “aiding the enemy”. Other topics covered on the episode are: You can now become a member of Progressive Podcast Australia, Tony Abbott apparently doesn’t believe in invisible things, Australia’s peak health body finally recognises that a vegan diet is healthy for all Australians, veganism is more than just a diet, intersectionality in cartoon form, intersectionality and feminism, and intersectionality and “Steve and Lucie’s” Team Earthling animal rights podcast.
Alternative Media:
Clips:
NineMSN ‘Rudd Says No Boat People will be Resettled in Australia’, Propagandhi ‘Cut Into the Earth’, Billy Bragg ‘NPWA’, The Whitest Kids U’ Know ‘Super Dog’, Speakers and chants from the Refugee Rights Rally in Perth, Rap News ‘Episode XIII: A News Hope’, Austin Powers, CNNNN ‘Series 2, Episode 6’, True Blood, Peep Show (Series 1, episode 6), CNNNN ‘Series 1, Episode 1’, Propagandhi ‘Nailing Descartes to the Wall/Liquid Meat is still Murder’, True Blood ‘Series 3, Episode 12’, Lowkey ‘We Will Rise’.
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